What is the best part about being a Software Engineer? • Hacker News Board

Re: What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

#151

Post by majewsky » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 2:03 PM UTC

saiya-jin wrote: post #99

sudeepj wrote: post #96

The best part about being SE are: 1) Iteration: We get to practice our stuff on real entities (language, OS, databases, etc). Do architects get to "practice" actual work at their home? Do new doctors get to try experimental surgeries? Do amateur civil engineers get to build those iconic bridges? They can do computer simulation ... but it is actually a software. 2) Hackathon: Can't imagine this happening in say medica…

adding to 1) - no real responsibility for bugs :) apart from few very specialized areas, you can do harm with bug but not harm/kill anybody. and we all do bugs, don't we

> apart from few very specialized areas, you can do harm with bug but not harm/kill anybody

I'd still say that more bugs can kill people than you would expect. Many seemingly harmless bugs can be used (maybe chained together) to extract personal information out of systems, which is then used to prosecute people, or to justify putting them on a death list.

> and we all do bugs, don't we

Yes, sadly.

Re: What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

#152

Post by pc86 » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 2:04 PM UTC

mahyarm wrote: post #53

askyourmother wrote: post #16

For me, the best part is interviewing for new jobs. You have not lived till you are asked to reverse sort a binary tree, whilst skipping on one leg, having to show you are passionate about the job! The disappointment was that the actual job did not entail data structures, Algorithms or even skipping! Just CRUD web apps.

In many companies the algo part is like 1/4th of the entire interview. The rest like code design, working with product simulations and coding challenges are pretty relevant, even in CRUD land Its just the algo stuff you usually have to review before hand vs all the others

This is almost exactly like Microsoft's response to the ribbon criticism when it first came out. They were so proud of themselves that a handful of those buttons were used 30% of the time or whatever, but ignored the fact that another handful was used Which is to say your justification is very much "75% of our interview process makes sense, it's only this 25% that you almost never needed any any previous job, you don't need at this one, and if you're self-taught you probably never learned in the first place, but we're going to ask you anyway because it makes the interviewer feel smart."

Re: What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

#153

Post by odonnellryan » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 2:04 PM UTC

andywood wrote: post #6

Those are some rose-colored glasses. I could easily make a list of the best things about being in the hospital, too. I'd estimate that my 18 years in software development have been about 25% good, 25% tolerable, and 50% team/boss-induced inhumane mental torture. The one thing I can't argue with is the money. Everything else has been highly volatile.

Try doing some work in IT: I feel the management problems are usually the same (if not worse) and the pay is half if you're lucky ;)

Re: What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

#154

Post by crispyambulance » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 2:04 PM UTC

emilburzo wrote: post #100

fridek wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CRUD apps are 90% brainless. The only challenge not solved by phpMyAdmin or others alike is UI and nice connections between the data. There were already attempts at generating this 90% just to decorate with UI and additional logic, but I feel it will take some time to do it well. People got burned by GWT and other backend + frontend solutions. Also "CRUD apps put food on the table for you guys. Be grateful!" is a rea…

> People got burned by GWT [...] What do you mean?

Back in the day, there were few javascript libraries and none of them could handle differences between browsers consistently. This was when people had to "roll their own" javascript, explicitly use xmlhttprequest (ajax) and web development was a pain in the ass.

People will laugh when I say this now, but for a time GWT was seen as an AWESOME alternative. The proposition that you could just write java and just have GWT shit out html and javascript for you was incredibly compelling.

... until you started using it!

Re: What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

#155

Post by gaius » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 2:05 PM UTC

naivepiano wrote: post #94

askyourmother wrote: post #16

For me, the best part is interviewing for new jobs. You have not lived till you are asked to reverse sort a binary tree, whilst skipping on one leg, having to show you are passionate about the job! The disappointment was that the actual job did not entail data structures, Algorithms or even skipping! Just CRUD web apps.

OMG I remember interviewing for a company asking all the right questions and talking about nice tech stacks and whatnot. People were nice too. Then I got an offer and I accepted it. First day in the job I figure that their main tech/language was TCL (of course they never mentioned it in the interviews). Stayed 2 weeks and went off running. The possibility of being stuck with some backwater tech killing off your futur…

Your username is well chosen - Tcl is a very underrated language. I'll wager they engineer rings around their competition. Good luck with the Java. You know it's the new COBOL right?

Re: What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

#156

Post by odonnellryan » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 2:05 PM UTC

dagw wrote: post #37

andywood wrote: post #6

Those are some rose-colored glasses. I could easily make a list of the best things about being in the hospital, too. I'd estimate that my 18 years in software development have been about 25% good, 25% tolerable, and 50% team/boss-induced inhumane mental torture. The one thing I can't argue with is the money. Everything else has been highly volatile.

Every time I read things like that I wonder if I've just been lucky or if there is something 'special' about the US. I've spent 10+ years working at companies of all shapes and sizes in Norway and Sweden, and with the exception of one 12 month stretch (working for an American ironically enough) all my bosses have been fine-to-great, and I've never had a real clash with any co-workers. And even that terrible American…

It's possible. It seems a lot of businesses I've worked for in the US really just don't have their shit together, or they have some weird "business fear" or paranoia that really impacts their employees in a bad way.

Re: What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

#157

Post by bryanrasmussen » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 2:06 PM UTC

Kronopath wrote: post #103

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been a coal miner, but I have worked a number of extremely physically demanding jobs, one especially where people died from poor safety conditions and most of everyone called in sick several days a month ( I was complimented sincerely on what a good worker I was because I only called in sick once per month). any day of that job was much worse than programming when programming on a good day, but programming…

What kind of days were those bad days?

those long bad days trying to fix a bug that you can't figure out and everything just seems bleak and full of despair, back aching from sitting badly at the desk all day trying without hope to fix the problem (because can't pull away just keep going), eyestrain, imposter syndrome - basically being in a bad and unrewarding relationship with your computer.

A bad day at the physical work was just cold, windy, hard work, muscle aches. Luckily I never got injured and I didn't know anyone that died there otherwise I suppose my opinion of the two works might be different. But I've worked other hard physical labor; for example - ditch digging - cold, muddy, and a real workout, less strenuous - washing dishes in a restaurant, bussing tables.

Again - all preferable to programming on a bad day of programming, maybe it's because when programming goes bad I keep thinking about it afterwards, the other work I forget it right away - hell, I don't even really think about it when I'm doing it.

Re: What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

#158

Post by emilburzo » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 2:08 PM UTC

crispyambulance wrote: post #154

emilburzo wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People got burned by GWT [...] What do you mean?

Back in the day, there were few javascript libraries and none of them could handle differences between browsers consistently. This was when people had to "roll their own" javascript, explicitly use xmlhttprequest (ajax) and web development was a pain in the ass. People will laugh when I say this now, but for a time GWT was seen as an AWESOME alternative. The proposition that you could just write java and just have GW…

> .. until you started using it!

I've been building stuff using GWT for the past 5 years, so I'm either doing it wrong or I'm completely missing something.

So, what's wrong with GWT?

Re: What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

#159

Post by gaius » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 2:10 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #34

When I was at school we had to interview our headmaster, and somebody asked him if he thought his job was difficult. His answer has always stayed with me: "Compared to lying on a beach drinking cocktails, it's difficult. But compared to a coal miner, it's ridiculously easy." Would I rather be a software developer - even one who is building boring CRUD apps - or a coal miner?

A few companies ago I interviewed an ex-coalminer for an Oracle DBA job. He was good too. My hiring recommendation was overridden by a senior manager who was a snob and an asshole, for the entirely irrelevant reason IIRC of no degree.

Re: What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

#160

Post by pc86 » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 2:11 PM UTC

cm3 wrote: post #101

alex_hitchins wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever tried a hard, manual labour job?

Yes, but not as a daily activity for long stretches (months), so my view may be incomplete. EDIT: Not as a job, but working for weeks, daily on a personal project.

There is absolutely no comparison between the person who has to work a manual labor job breaking their body down because it's the only way they can earn a living and the guy doing 2-3 weeks of physical labor because they have a personal project they want to finish.

I mean I can't even put into words how ridiculous this comment is.